Paul Neilan Quotes

If life's lessons could be reduced to single sentences, there would be no need for fiction.

Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

I love telling people's stories.

I'm a conduit for telling people's stories. It's a privilege.

If you're older you want to tell stories about the pool of human life and living and to communicate, not only to your age group but to do an age group that can begin to understand, that has enough experience of life far beyond the taste of life.

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

The richest most meaningful stories are found in small places: made, carried, crafted, told, and retold by apparently unimportant people.

I like making films about old people because they are repositories of amazing stories that they tell well. And they're incredibly good telly.

I think as a kid I always liked to listen to people. I loved hearing stories.

When you talk, you only talk about something that you already know. But when you listen, you can learn something you don’t know.

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.

I consider the world, this Earth, to be like a school, and our life the classrooms.

Being able to tell people's stories - this is the most exciting job in the world to me.

Talking to people and hearing their stories, you learn a lot.

When you tell a story you automatically talk about traditions, but they're never separate from the people, the human implications. You're talking about your connections as a human being.

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.

Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?But am I talking too much? People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I didn't talk? If you say so I'll stop. I can STOP when I make up my mind to it, although it's difficult.

I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.

There are essentially two things that will make you wise -- the books you read and the people you meet.

For me, a story's a story if people want to hear it; it's very much based on oral storytelling. And for me, a story is a story when people give me the privilege of listening when I'm speaking it out loud.

We may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear it more than once.

i never learned anything while i was talking.

We [people] are a species that's wired to tell stories. We need stories. It's how we make sense of things. It's how we learn.

People need stories...we use stories to teach, to learn, to make sense of the world around us. As long as we need stories, we will need books.

Always observe, watch, and talk to older people.